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The Harvard Crimson basketball team will host the MIT Engineers at Lavietes Pavilion on Tuesday.
The game (7 p.m. ET start time) won’t be on regular cable TV anywhere, but you can watch it live right here on ESPN+, the digital streaming service from ESPN that has exclusive coverage of many Harvard and Ivy League basketball games this season, plus tons of other college basketball and live sports every week, all the 30-for-30 documentaries and additional original content (both video and written) all for $4.99 per month.
You can sign up for ESPN+ right here, and you can then watch Harvard vs MIT live on your computer via ESPN.com, or on your phone (Android and iPhone compatible), tablet, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, Chromecast, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, or other streaming device via the ESPN app.
MIT vs Harvard Basketball Preview
The Crimson went 19-12 last year, their 12th season under head coach Tommy Amaker, earning a share of the Ivy League regular season title with a 10-4 conference mark. They shared the conference’s regular season title the year prior as well, but each season they lost in the conference tournament title game and failed to earn a bid to the NCAA Tournament.
“It’s absolutely heartbreaking to not have lived up to those expectations,” senior guard Justin Bassey said, according to the Boston Herald. “Knowing that we’ve had one of the most talented groups of players in the country and not being able to put it all together, it’s absolutely devastating.”
Bryce Aiken led the team with 22.2 points per game last year, which would have ranked 18th in the nation had a knee injury not kept him out until January, limiting him to 18 games.
“I don’t think anybody’s outside expectations are higher than what we have for ourselves,” the senior guard said, per the Boston Herald. “We know what’s in front of us, we’ve been working at it for some years now and obviously we haven’t achieved the success that we’ve wanted, but it’s a clean slate. New season, same goals, high expectations. We’re looking forward to it.”
The Engineers, who play in the New England Women’s and Men’s Athletic Conference of Division III, went 23-5 last year in their 24th season under head coach Larry Anderson. They won the NEWMAC regular season title with a 12-2 league mark, but fell to the WPI Engineers in the semifinals of the conference tournament.
Still, MIT earned an at-large bid to the Division III NCAA Tournament, then fell to the Swarthmore College Garnet in the second round.
The Engineers scored 83.7 points per game last season, ranking 51st out of 416 Division III schools. They surrendered 68.1 points per game, good for 42nd.
Their three top per-game scorers from last year — guard AJ Jurko (18.2 points per game), wing Bradley Jomard (17.8), and forward Tim Roberts (15.1) — graduated over the offseason.
“Less than one percent of all the players in the world who play high school basketball would qualify to play here,” Anderson told Mississippi Today over the offseason. “I recruit the whole world. We have to cast a world-wide net to get the players we need to compete.”
He added: “We play fast, we averaged 85 a game this past season. But much of that offense is predicated by defense. We guard really hard, man-to-man. It’s simple. Basketball is not rocket science.”